23 comments:

Should Cal win tonight at UCLA then I would think they are guaranteed a spot in the tourney being a 12 win team, plus a share of the lead, from the Pac-10. No matter what their RPI or SOS happens to be.

Mich St. needs this home win over Wisc tonight. Although, it would just be another home win for them as they can't win on the road, it is important for them if they want a #8 seed or higher. Otherwise I think they could fall down to a 10 seed. How would you like to be the #7 seed facing MSU or the #2 that faces them in the second round. Not saying they'd win, just a tough match-up.

UAB just needs to play Memphis close to show they can compete with a good team. I think they are in either way, but a win would be nice to solidify their hold as a bubble team that gets in.

Syracuse, needs to win at DePaul or people will have another arrow to shoot at their bubble. They do play in a tough league but they need this win to be in. Their best in conference win was a 2 point win over WVU at the Dome. Their second best conference win??....pick from Cincy, ND, or L'ville. Not too impressive in my book.

UCLA is playing at Cal tonight. I completely disagree that UAB is in either way. They have to beat Memphis to get in. The only advantage UAB may have is that they have had success in the NCAA tournament in the last 2 years.

Teams will be encouraged to play a cupcake OOC schedule if Colorado is given an at large spot. Texas & Kansas beat up the NIT worthy Buffs. The sad thing is so did Nebraska and Kansas State. The win over Oklahoma is not impressive. Oklahoma nearly lost home games to Iowa State, Oklahoma State, and K State.

To whom it may concern, Texas & Kanses beat up the Buffs at home. When KU beat the Buffs earlier on the road, it was the first conference game for both teams. What I am trying to say is that the Buffs win over OU was somewhat impressive, but the fact of the matter is late in the season when a ranked team goes on the road to play a bubble teams, it's hard to win. I would say Duke & Texas would agree. Therefore I think CU's win over OU is slightly impressive. What wasn't impressive is CU's bad losses since then.

Speaking of OU....I really can't get a handle on them, but here is an interesting situation, that hopefully B101 can shed some light on. IF....OU wins at Texas and no matter what KU does at K-St., the seeds in the Big XII tourney will be 1. KU, 2. OU, 3. UT (this is because the tiebreakers go division opponents first and OU would be 2-0 vs UT, 0-1 vs KU). That would mean a possible semi-final match-up of OU/UT. What I wanted to know is what would be better for OU's seeding? Winning in Austin on Sunday and likely losing to UT in conf. tourney (I can't see them beating UT for a 3rd time) or losing on Sunday, being the 3 seed and winning a semifinal vs KU, avenging an earlier 1 point loss and keeping KU out of the conference finals?

It will be interesting to see if the committee rewards, FSU, A&M, CU for playing farce non-conference schedules. It hurt A&M last year (no bid), and it has hurt other teams too (USU two years ago). FSU and A&M need to back up those big wins to get in. Same goes for UAB if they win tonight, although their out-of-conference is quite a bit better than the other three.

Oklahoma's seeding would be most helped by a marquee win, so your scenario in which they beat Texas Sunday and then lose to the Longhorns in the Big XII tourney would help them the most. Two wins over Texas, especially one tonight in Austin, would overshadow OU's loss to Kansas (who weren't competitive in their only game vs. the Longhorns). OU also has a huge RPI edge (12 vs. 39) in their favor. Right now, we have them both on the 6 line, but if your first scenario holds true, the Sooners would likely be a seed line higher Selection Sunday. Their best case seeding is probably a 4.

UAB is in no way safe if they "play a close game and lose" tonight. The wins by FSU and Texas A&M gave both of those teams an edge over UAB, who has been in our bracket the last few weeks in large part because they still had a game left vs. Memphis. With their pathetic OOC resume, they need this win over Memphis - and a finals run the C-USA tourney - to feel safe.

Will Syracuse be rewarded for that 39 point loss to Depaul? Did anyone keep track of how many wide open dunks/layups Depaul got? It was like Syracuse didn't have anything to play for. They didn't hustle back on defense or anything.

Syracuse, Seton Hall and Cincinnati have created the one of most interesting dilemmas for the selection this season. Which two of the three teams (or perhaps not even 2?) get into the tournament. You could argue that none of the three teams has played well enough (no big upsets, BAD losses, lackluster play) to get an at-large inivte to the NCAA Tournament. While most teams seem to be a big win away from a solid chance at an at-large bid (Texas A&M, Indiana, Florida State, UAB, etc.), none of these three teams have been capable of such play. At least each squad has a big game this weekend to try and get that one last signature win that almost every other team has made this past week.

Here's why daily updates at this point are stupid. Lunardi updated his bracket Wednesday and puts Seton Hall in after they beat Cinci and takes UAB out. Then on Thursday he puts in FSU after they beat Duke and takes Seton Hall back out. Now tomorrow he will have to put UAB back in after their win tonight. So then what is he going to do take out FSU or A&M out? That's why brackets that make their selections as if the season ended today are stupid. There are lots of important games left to be played and daily updates are not necessary till next week when teams are playing their last game.

Then there were 2. UCLA & Washington are the only 2 alive for the PAC 10 regular season title. Is Cal a lock if they beat USC Saturday? Stanford barely squeaked past USC. UAB locked up an at large IMHO

Wouldn't it be something if Syracuse, Cincy, and Seton Hall all lose this weekend? It is very possible as all 3 teams have very tough games. I know it only counts as 1 loss, but Syracuse looked unmotivated like they could care less. When is the last time Syracuse gave up over 100 points? They are noted for that tricky zone.

Cal has an RPI in the 50s and a 17-9 record. They better get to at least 18 wins to feel safe. USC has Gabe Pruitt & Rashaun Cromwell back so they won't be a pushover. The Trojans nearly beat Stanford tonight. It is very likely that Cal will play USC in the 1st round of PAC 10 tournament next Thursday

Well, I had in Cal in my field based largely on the road win over UCLA and a home win over Arizona (since Arizona's 19 RPI, I think that counts as a quality win). However, I also thought that they would beat UCLA yesterday. Without that UCLA win, and with FSU, UAB, and Texas A&M all pulling off recent wins, I think Cal's definitely in a little trouble. I think they need to at least beat USC and win 1 game in the Pac-10 tournament at this point to be given serious consideration. Even that might be enough. A 2nd win in the Pac-10 tournament, which would probably mean beating Arizona, Washington, or UCLA would be seriously helpful to their cause.

Cal still doesn't need to pull off anything huge to get in a bid. As long as they beat USC this weekend and then win their first game in the Pac-10 tourney (which will be against one of the bottom teams in the Pac-10) then they should still get a bid. Their RPI is still questionable but if they win their next two and then lose to one of the top teams in the Pac-10 it could very well crack the top 50.

You guys are wrong about Cal playing a bottum feeder in the PAC 10 tourney. They will either play Stanford, USC, or Arizona. UW and UCLA have already locked down the top 2 seeds. So USC is hardly playing a bottum feeder.

Bracketology 101 has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Wall Street Journal and on ESPN Radio affiliates across the country. The site is designed to serve as a more reliable, more accurate alternative to the Bracketology selections of other major sports websites.
Rather than predict teams based on the season ending today, or make wild predictions of the future, Bracketology 101 uses a unique "projection-prediction" method of selecting teams, giving fans a much more realistic idea of where their favorite teams stand in the eyes of the selection committee.
While other bracketologists favor conferences or teams or rely entirely on RPI rankings in making their picks, we factor in a team's resume as a whole - big wins, bad losses, in and out-of-conference wins, upcoming schedules, conference tournament sites, and each team's overall strengths and weaknesses compared to other teams on the bubble. Our "Field of 68" is updated every Monday throughout the season, with daily updates coming during Championship Week.

Join The B101 Team!

Do you want to advertise on Bracketology 101 during March Madness? Do you want to sponsor one of our upcoming daily brackets? E-mail us at bracketologyblog@yahoo.com for ad rates and details.

Follow B101 On Twitter

Bracketology 101 is now on Twitter! To follow B101 on Twitter, just click on the Twitter logo above.

How B101 Stacks Up

The numbers speak for themselves: Over the last five years, Bracketology 101 is the most accurate bracketology site on the Internet. We produced the best bracket in 2006, the second best in 2007 and 2008, and the fifth best in 2009. We are the only bracketologists to produce a Top 5 bracket four of the last five years. No other bracketologist has placed in the Top 5 more than twice. For a complete breakdown of our bracket stats from the last four years, click on the “We’re #1!” logo above.

The 40-60 Club

On top of correctly predicting 64 of the 65 tournament teams in 2008, Bracketology 101 also became the first bracketology site to ever seed 40 teams exactly and 60 teams within one seed line of their actual seed. Through 2010, we are the only bracketology site to earn this distinction.